Orbito

Can you make 4 in a row when the pieces are continually shifting?

How do you play Orbito?

Place the board on a flat surface, each player chooses a colour and takes their 8 marbles.

You're ready to play.

Each turn has three steps
1. Move an opponents piece to an adjacent space (not diagonally)
2. Place one of your marbles
3. Press the button in the centre of the board.  This makes all the marbles shift counter-clockwise around the board.

The winner of the game is the person who makes four in a row first.

Sounds easy?  Not quite. 

When you start playing this game the movement of pieces feels really random even though they always move in the same way.  As you play more you start to recognise the patterns.  You'll become better at predicting the outcome of the button press.  It's fabulous.

Its the sort of game where you'll sit down and play many times in a row.

What can you learn?

• to think ahead and work out where your marbles are going to shift to
• strategic thinking
• to focus and refocus attention as the pieces move
• recognition of patterns
• to manage in changing situations.

THINKercise twist

• Draw a picture of all the types marble positions that lead to 4-in-a-row on the next push of the button.
• Draw a picture of the marble positions that lead to a 4-in-a-row in two pushes of the button.